Article 22 project seeks to instate food rights into UK law

The Sustain alliance will be collaborating with the Article 22 project, and also with Nourish Scotland and Just Fair, to convene our new Right to Food initiative.

As the Article 22 team explains: Human rights have the potential to help us achieve social justice and they encourage us to rethink systemically the way we design and implement public policy. Access to adequate housing, education, health, food, decent work, social security, an adequate standard of living and participation in cultural life are globally recognised as human rights.

The UK has signed up to a number of relevant international treaties, the most important being the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, these rights have not been incorporated into national laws and policies.

International human rights law imposes certain obligations on public authorities. Among other things, they must respect the minimum core content of economic, social and cultural rights in all circumstances, they must protect everyone from possible wrongdoing by third parties, they cannot discriminate on any of the prohibited grounds, and they must pay particular attention to most vulnerable groups.

Authorities have to advance progressively the level of enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights over time, with the corresponding expectation of non-regression, namely, the requirement to avoid step backwards. Governments have to adopt all necessary policies to protect and fulfil economic, social and cultural rights, including through progressive taxation and judicial enforceability.

Many policies and laws protecting economic, social and cultural rights in the UK come from the EU. As the UK prepares to leave the European Union, some of our rights could be at risk. There has never been a stronger need and indeed an opportunity to incorporate international human rights law if and when EU law no longer applies.‌

Follow Article 22 on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/Article22UK

Follow Sustain's Right to Food initiative on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/Right2FoodUK

News • Food Poverty

Food Poverty: Millions of people in the UK struggle to get enough to eat. We’re working to change that through people-powered projects and campaigns that tackle the root causes of food poverty and ensure everyone has dignified access to healthy, affordable food.

Press office

News • Food Poverty

Kath Dalmeny
Chief Executive

Kath is Chief Executive of Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming.

Among many initiatives, Kath instigated and helped to develop the Good Food for London and Beyond the Food Bank reports, now established for over a decade and being replicated in other areas, driving uptake of good food schemes by local authorities. She also instigated the Good Food for Our Money campaign and the Campaign for Better Hospital Food, which won healthy and sustainable food standards for Whitehall, prisons and parts of the armed forces, and in NHS Standard Contracts for hospitals. In 2017, she helped to launch of the Right to Food initiative, exploring the legal foundations that would ensure that everyone, no matter what their circumstances, is able to eat well and not experience hunger.

The Right to Food principle was adopted in the manifestos of Labour, the Lib Dems, the Green Party and the SNP in the 2019 General Election. Previously, Kath designed and instigated the Sustainable Fish Cities alliance campaign, which won pledges to serve 100% verifiably sustainable fish from caterers that together serve 1 billion meals a year. Kath also sits on the steering group for the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, campaigning to end the overuse of antibiotics in farming.

Staff profiles

Support our work

Your donation will help communities identify ways to alleviate food poverty and increase access to healthy food.

Donate